


Fractured Mending

by crankyfractal (upquarkAO3), mmouse15



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 07:25:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14848325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/upquarkAO3/pseuds/crankyfractal, https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmouse15/pseuds/mmouse15
Summary: Done for the 2018 Cap RBB, with art by crankyfractal.Bucky Barnes is not the only one that lives in his brain. There are others, and they, too, want to survive. Covers the time from CA: The First Avenger to Black Panther.





	1. Origins

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Chyetirye](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1815529) by [SkyisGray](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyisGray/pseuds/SkyisGray). 
  * Inspired by [This, You Protect](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1752638) by [owlet](https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlet/pseuds/owlet). 
  * Inspired by [If They Haven't Learned Your Name](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6329503) by [silentwalrus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentwalrus/pseuds/silentwalrus). 



> Based on art by [crankyfractal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/upquarkAO3/pseuds/crankyfractal), which is very inspirational! Thank you for being such a great cheerleader, too.  
> Many thanks to [HunterPeverall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HunterPeverell/profile) for the beta reading and wonderful suggestions. This was truly a team effort, and I couldn't have done it without crankfractal and Hunter Peverall.

The first time Bucky felt like his mind was splintering was the third day he was on the table in Azzano. Something deep in his mind came forward and whispered, "Barnes, Sergeant, 32557038'. He repeated the words, letting the pain fade to the background as much as possible, giving him respite from the pain. The other kept repeating the words, letting Bucky compose himself.  
The something faded back further into his mind when Bucky realized that the Steve bending over him and breaking his restraints was real. He forgot about it as they marched back to the Allied lines, disbelief at seeing Steve healthy and strong pushing his own worries to the very back of his mind. Then they formed the Howling Commandos as a guerrilla team, working with Agent Carter, and Bucky simply forgot about Azzano as much as he could, instead focusing on keeping Steve safe, since he now had the body to match his determination to make everything in the world work the way he thought it should. Bucky found himself in despair often, since Steve had never learned subtlety and thought that an all-out frontal assault was the answer to any problem. Fortunately, the Howling Commandos undertook the task of training Steve to be an actual asset to the war effort, and Bucky found himself able to fade back into being a sergeant and sniper, and not the perpetual rescuer of Steve Rogers. Their team worked well together, and Bucky had almost completely forgotten the strange other in his mind.

Then he fell.

As Steve faded from his sight, Bucky felt that different him come forward and say, 'We have to survive this.' Then he landed, pain shooting through his entire body, and he plunged into unconsciousness. When he finally struggled up through the black, he was being dragged by the collar of his coat and the men surrounding him were speaking in a language he didn't understand. Then they pulled him over some rocks and to his horror, he saw that he no longer had an arm on his left side. The pain and shock overwhelmed him, and Bucky slid back into the darkness.

The next time he woke, the men were arguing with another group of men while one knelt next to him, checking the tourniquet on his arm. He met Bucky's eyes briefly, then looked away, and Bucky prepared himself for the worst as he felt his consciousness falling away, a mere whisper of the other coming forward before all was black again.

The worst came to pass. Bucky woke up in the hands of the Germans, specifically HYDRA, and he was not prepared for the years that followed. No one could be. They cut off the blackened end of his arm, then cut off more when the stump turned gangrenous under their torturous hands. Both times no pain medication was used. They simply strapped him down and began cutting as he screamed. That pain was better than the constant noise they barraged him with for he had no idea how long, until his mind was splintered into each breath, the saw of air in and out through his lungs. Then they threw him in a hole and covered it, leaving him in the dark until the only escape was in his own mind. There he realized that he had another presence in his mind, the other from Azzano. This other presence was much cooler and calmer than Bucky. This presence analyzed what HYDRA was doing to him, and how effective the methods were. Bucky sometimes wanted to scream at him, and did so, but soon realized that it accomplished nothing. He named the presence Tiny, hoping to reduce it by name, but that didn't work either.

Tiny was far more practical than Bucky. Bucky just wanted to go home, wanted to see Steve again, wanted to kiss his mother's cheek and wrap his sisters in his arms, and oh, god, he only had one arm and that wouldn't work...Tiny took over their mind, stopping the screaming and ranting and getting them out of the hole.

More of their arm had to be cut off, as infection had set in again. This time, however, the stump was wrapped and they were kept in a bed and given antibiotics and medical care until the stump had grown a tender new skin. A new person had come to the base where they were kept, and to both their horror, it was Zola, who promised that they would become the new fist of HYDRA.  
A metal arm was grafted onto the remnants of their arm and through multiple surgeries, the bones of their shoulder, collar bone, and some of their ribs were replaced with metal to support the weight of the arm. Tiny was the one that got them through the ordeal, while Bucky reeled from the blows each change wrought on his identity. Tiny analyzed each change, cataloging how well the surgeons had done and how effective each addition to their body made the arm. They learned to work together. Bucky was ever defiant, wanting to get away from Zola and his minions, while Tiny was an observer — his main goal was to survive.

After the scars from all the surgeries had healed, a new program was started, and Bucky found himself unable to cope with all the changes happening. They were pushed, hard, into a physical training program where they would run until they couldn't, then rested and pushed to do it again. Experts were brought in to train them in many different fighting styles, and with many different weapons. Bucky was the sharpshooter and adapted to the fighting, but he still was defiant and, given his bewilderment, Tiny would often tell him what to do. More and more often, Bucky found himself relying on Tiny's instruction until the night he could no longer do it.

Thus the Winter Soldier was born. A new personality, one that took Bucky's skills and used them. Tiny renamed himself the Asset, after their new handler called them the best asset he had. So, three personalities occupying one brain. The Asset, Tiny, was the analyst, coolly calculating odds and planning multiple steps ahead. He picked up languages with ease and was able to take on the spy missions their handlers wanted them to do with calculated precision. He combined the cockiness of the pre-war Bucky Barnes and the calculations of Tiny, the deadliness of the Winter Soldier and the intense training they'd been subjected to, and turned all of those attributes into an effective spy, who could change body language right in front of a person and become all but invisible to them. This subtlety turned them into a master assassin and spy, used effectively by HYDRA to sow discord everywhere in the world.

The Winter Soldier was the brute force of their trio, forged into being through pain and deprivation and thus able to fight through pain, use any weapon, and keep going despite fatigue, injury, or changing circumstances. Bucky was the human factor, but he was also the least needed of the three, and the Winter Soldier found Bucky's squeamishness at collateral damage difficult to process. More and more often, Bucky found himself deep in his own mind, tending the small flame of memory as the other two took over their body and kept them alive.

Then came Karpov, and the method of handling the Winter Soldier changed yet again. He was at peak physical condition, able to run fifty miles in a day, sleep for an hour, and do it again. He had been trained in multiple martial arts, in ballet, and in spycraft. He was very good at what he did, but any time Bucky could get control of their mind, he would attempt to escape, despite the Asset and the Winter Soldier telling him to not do so. Bucky was determined to get back home.  
Karpov changed all of that. He moved the Winter Soldier up to a Siberian base, and began to work on new procedures. Through brutal sessions, he took words that had meaning to Bucky Barnes, and stripped them of those meanings, implementing a program that forced Bucky down and brought the Winter Soldier to the forefront of their mind. Karpov also implemented cryofreeze, keeping the body at its physical preparedness, and then figuring out how to wipe his mind with high voltages of electricity. In self defence, Bucky gathered as many of his tattered memories as he could and delved deep in their shared mind. The Asset laid his own personality over Bucky's, walling Bucky in the depths. The Winter Soldier became the first layer of their mind, the one that responded to the keywords, who grabbed any memories that arose during the sequence and shoved them down, where the Asset took them and pushed them on to Bucky, who clung to them.

In this manner, Bucky Barnes found himself the deeply buried core of the Winter Soldier. All too soon, Bucky found himself unable to get through his mindmates to get control of their body. The Asset would take over when the Winter Soldier would run into circumstances he didn't understand, and the Winter Soldier would take over from the Asset once they were back in a place where his skills were needed. Their ability to switch between themselves was so smooth, their handlers had no idea they were essentially working with two different people. Bucky would simply muddle things up, and to preserve their own integrity, the Asset and the Winter Soldier rarely let Bucky surface enough to be a presence to others.

The only time after that Bucky came up was when the Asset took over when they were assassinating someone in New York City in the sixties. Their handler was an incompetent fool, and the Winter Soldier gladly broke his neck when he unknowingly released them from their orders. The Asset took over, getting them out of the safehouse and blending into the population around them. Bucky sent up memories of Brooklyn, and the Asset found the subway, getting them over the river and into Brooklyn. Bucky guided them to his and Steve's apartment building. It was still standing, a little shop on the ground floor and around back, the stairs that led to the various apartments. The wood was pulling away from the brick walls, the steps were loose, and the whole place had the dingy look of neglect. Bucky didn't care. He took their body up the stairs, climbing to the top floor. When the knob wouldn't turn, the Winter Soldier briefly took over and simply broke the door with one blow of their left arm.

Bucky froze on the threshold. Their apartment, which had been a shotgun tenement, was completely different. Instead of entering in the kitchen, where a board laid over the bathtub had been their table, then leading back to a sitting room, with the small bedroom in the back, the walls between their apartment and the one next door had been knocked out. Now they were standing in a sitting room, with the kitchen to their right. Ahead were various doors that appeared to lead toward bedrooms, with one smaller room between looking like a bathroom. They all had no idea how to handle the change and stood there, cataloguing the changes. Bucky was in control, and that was the only reason someone was able to sneak up on them and jab them in the neck with a hypodermic needle. As they dropped, they heard someone say, “Tell Karpov that his pet assassin still remembers,” before everything blacked out.

When they woke, they were strapped in the chair. Mentally they scrambled, rearranging themselves to protect Bucky and his memories. The Winter Soldier yelled as the electricity arced through their head, and Bucky sobbed in the depths of his mind as the pain raced through them. Afterwards, the Winter Soldier lay in the chair, his mind quiet, ready to do as his masters ordered.

Things would have stayed in this state if his masters had not decided to send the Winter Soldier to assassinate Nick Fury.


	2. Fracturing

They couldn't keep track of how many times electricity was arced through their head. Bucky had tried, in the beginning, but he lost count too quickly. The Asset figured the number of times was irrelevant, given that it reset everything they did, and other than trying to compensate for the damage, didn't worry about it overly often. It annoyed him because it was tactically a stupid thing to do, but the burden of that was on the handlers. The Winter Soldier accepted the pain as something his handlers liked to use on him and shrugged it away as best he could.

The Asset was snarling with frustration as they fought to stop Captain America and the Flying One. Finally, they stationed themselves at the computer control center at the bottom of the helicarrier, waiting for the Captain to show himself.

When he did, the Winter Soldier had to absorb the barrage of memories thrown at him by the Bucky personality. The Asset also had to bat the memories aside. Bucky screamed impotently at them, beating at the wall separating him from the Asset, who ignored him and kept him from bothering the Winter Soldier. The Soldier's skills would be needed, and the Asset didn't want Bucky distracting him.

The Captain seemed to make up his mind and threw his shield at them. The Soldier flung his arm up and blocked the shield, and the fight was on. Both the Captain and the Winter Soldier fought as hard as they could, although it seemed that the Captain was holding back. The Winter Soldier had no such compunction and did his utmost to stop the Captain, although he found himself unable to shoot a killing blow until his last shot, Bucky howling in the depths of their mind in anguish.

When the support beam fell on them, the Winter Soldier resigned himself to death and the Asset took over. Survival was his focus, and he strained to lift the beam enough to wriggle free. The Captain staggered over and helped, despite the bullet wounds that must have been painful. The Asset wondered if he would survive the gutshot, since he could smell the infection from perforated intestines already. The Captain lifted the beam, and the Asset wriggled out, then clambered to his feet and let the Soldier take over.

The Captain was saying something about not fighting them, because they were his friend. The Winter Soldier denied the friendship, the Asset was puzzled, and Bucky — Bucky was clawing his way up through their mind, trying to reach Steve.

In the midst of all this clamor, James was born.

 

James was not a tactician and spy, like the Asset. He was not a warrior, like the Winter Soldier. Nor was he the damaged remnants of a person, as Bucky was. Instead, James was brand-new, with no memories or attachments to anything. He watched the Captain fall, not understanding what was happening, until the Asset took over and let go, letting them fall after the Captain. The Asset kept his eyes on the Captain's form, only closing their eyes just before they hit the water. 

The Asset forced their eyes open, using the Soldier's ability to ignore pain to scan the dark water for the Captain's body, grabbing it when they found him and letting the Soldier take over. They used the damaged arm to hold the Captain and the weapon to swim up to the surface, switching arms when they could stand on the bottom of the river and walk out. The Soldier dragged the Captain out of the water and turned him, watching closely until the Captain coughed and water came out of his mouth, then air went in. Satisfied that the Captain was in a location where he would be quickly spotted, the Soldier faded back into the underbrush. He found a tree and used it to reset the dislocated shoulder. Once accomplished, the Asset came to the fore. He cached their weapons, hid them as they ventured closer to people’s dwellings, stripped them of their wet gear, and found other clothing, letting them blend in. He picked several pockets, stripping the wallets and purses of cash before dropping them on the sidewalk. There were a lot of other dazed people in the area, the helicarriers having caused massive damage, and the Asset had them blending in seamlessly. He stole remnants of people's lunches, fueling the body so it could repair itself. Later in the day, he found a house undergoing renovation and picked the back door's lock, getting them into shelter. He locked the door again and went to the upper floor, putting himself in a walk-in closet and curling up. He awoke a day and a half later, most of the damage done to his body repaired, and left.

He found a coffee shop down the street and used their facilities, washing his hands and face, joining the queue and ordering a breakfast sandwich and a latte, then tucking himself in a corner. From his seat, he could see over a young woman's shoulder. She was watching the news on her laptop computer, and the chyrons quickly brought him up to date. Captain America was safe and recovering in an undisclosed hospital, SHIELD/HYDRA files had been released to the internet and were being mined for data, and the Congress had been recalled and committee meetings were scheduled to begin within the week.

The Asset finished their food and coffee and left, walking along the sidewalk easily. He noticed a loud, bombastic man seated at a restaurant, because the man was being a jerk to the person he was with. A hint of Bucky arose—no one should treat a woman like that. The Asset smoothly stole the man's computer bag and slid down the next street, finding another coffee shop and ordering a cappuccino this time. He quickly hacked the man's password and connected it to the Wi-Fi. He had no idea how he had all these skills, but he was going to take advantage of them. He quickly rifled through the Black Widow's download and found nothing on the Winter Soldier, or the Asset, or the Fist of HYDRA. Relieved, he turned to various drops and found nothing that recalled him. The organization was in complete disarray, which meant he was going to be able to get away. He quickly booked several tickets to various locations, using the saved credit card information on the computer. He stood up, leaving the laptop open, and made his way to the restrooms, which he bypassed in favor of leaving through the rear door of the shop.

Finding himself in the alley, he made his way to the street and blended in, making his way to the Metro station. He was tempted to go to New York City, but he knew that would be the first place his handlers would look for him. He chose Boston, and bought a ticket using the cash he'd stolen. Getting on the bus, he chose a seat near the exit window and tucked himself into the seat, pulling his hat down over his eyes and settling in for the ride.

When they finally made it to Boston, the Asset found a HYDRA safehouse and raided it of all the cash, weapons, and equipment he could before leaving it and finding a bolthole where they could be safe for a few days.

Finally, the Asset released his tight grip on their shared mind and let the others sort themselves out.

The Soldier quickly catalogued their weapons, their location, and their status. Satisfied, he sank back.

Bucky came up from the depths, desperate for information about Steve. The Asset reassured him, and Bucky moved back to make way for James. Bucky's shock at seeing Steve echoed through all of them. The Soldier and the Asset had not realized that the Captain America of the present and of the past were the same person, were Steve Rogers. Bucky's desperation sent shockwaves through all of them.

James was the least worried about the identity of the Captain. He was fascinated by their surroundings, and curious as to why they were here. He started asking questions. The Asset and the Soldier answered the questions as best they could, but their mindsets were strategic and tactical, and James was asking questions that were more emotional in nature. Finally Bucky came out to answer James' question, letting the excitement of the new personality carry them along until it was dark.

Under the cover of the night, the Soldier moved them out, heading to the docks of Boston. He found a freighter ship, loaded and ready to leave. He stowed them away in the hold, settling in for the trip.

Ten days later, they were in Europe, wending their way to Paris.


	3. Survival

As they took control of their fate, the Asset and the Soldier were surprised to find that Bucky was a competent personality. He was charming, a little old-fashioned, and could read people extremely well. The Asset realized that Bucky was the source of his ability to integrate into situations, and vowed to let Bucky become more of an equal. Bucky was also familiar with Paris, having been there during his war, and he knew little places that were tucked away. Some of the places were gone, but a surprising number were still in existence, and Bucky used his charm to get them the resources they needed without stealing or drawing attention to them. From Paris, they worked their way east. They walked, they used trains, they hitched rides. The Asset switched flawlessly between languages, presenting them variously as a labourer, a student, or a tourist. James was an excellent tourist, because English was his only language, and he had the wide-eyed look of astonishment that was necessary for the disguise. They got cash as they needed, by working and taking payment under the table.

They would stop in a city and find hostel, or an empty apartment they could squat in. Bucky bought journals and began to write his fragmented memories down. The other personalities read them and added their thoughts. Photographs of Captain America were surprisingly easy to acquire and were pasted into the journals. Bucky even managed to find some photographs of Steve before the serum, and use them to show the others why he worried about Steve so much. The Asset absorbed the information, James was fascinated, and the Soldier was blunt that he would have killed tiny Steve and put him out of their shared misery. Bucky sulked for weeks after that. The Asset finally mediated them into speaking again, since it was frustrating to have two personalities in direct conflict with each other, and could endanger them if they couldn't work together.

Having a base allowed each of them to take over their shared body. Bucky used his time to write in his journals. He accumulated so many, they finally bought a backpack to keep them in. He would spend hours hunched over a table, writing until his hand would cramp. He would shake it out and continue until he fell asleep. Getting his memories down so they could all understand was his driving force. He also wanted to build as much of their shared history as possible, and would sometimes ask the others to contribute what they knew. His handwriting was the beautiful flowing cursive of the Palmer method, and covered pages at a time with stories and information. Most of the notes on the pictures were his, pointing out things that annoyed him about Steve's costume. The Soldier annotated which were actual armor and which were more worthless in protecting Steve from harm.

The Soldier always scouted, looking for tails, or people who seemed too interested in them, and any signs of danger meant that they packed up and were gone in a few minutes. Every base had an escape plan, and if they stayed somewhere for more than a week, he had a bolthole where they could wait out any pursuit. He would share his information with Bucky via the journals, and his writing was crabbed, often switching between English, Russian, and German. His memories read like reports, terse and blunt. He noted their kill count with every mission report.

The Asset navigated their way through getting money. They could always raid HYDRA accounts, but they were all leery of doing so, afraid that tapping into that resource would bring the attention of elements they didn't want to deal with. He arranged any work they got, he found cookware so they could make their own meals, and he figured out what neighborhoods would turn a blind eye to them. When he wrote in the journals, his writing was printed, almost looking like it was typed, and he would also write as if it were a report; however, he would also add details when they occurred to him, which Bucky appreciated. He was the one that arranged their furniture for maximum effectiveness in aiding their escape.

James indulged his fascination. He loved museums, parks, and the various types of markets each city had. He indulged his senses, taking deep breaths in gardens, parsing the various scents. He would touch, fascinated by the differences in textures between statues and the plinths they were perched on. He loved to taste different foods, and quickly became a connoisseur of the local cuisines, figuring out where to get the best food. He rarely wrote in their journals, because he had few memories, but his writing was more childlike than anyone else's, sprawling and crooked.

The longest they spent anywhere was two months, and both the Asset and the Soldier were jumpy by the time they left. Some places, they spent only a night or two before moving on. The amount of curiosity they engendered was a sign of how long they could spend - too much, and they left. As they continued east, the curiosity waned, as people were struggling, still, to recover from the latest economic downturn. Working multiple jobs left few people with the energy to worry about anyone else.

They had a few close calls at first, where someone recognized them, but each time, the Soldier ghosted them away, taking them up onto roofs and dropping behind the cordons, then letting the Asset change their walk and how they held themselves, blending in with the people around them. Everything they learned as a spy came into use to keep them from being recaptured by HYDRA. Eventually, even those encounters stopped as they headed deeper into the former Soviet Union.

Finally, they found a place where they could rest for awhile. The Soldier, of course, made a plan for their escape. The Asset found them a job and an apartment. James found them a farmer's market, where they could get fresh produce. Bucky found a library with a lot of personal journals from World War II, and he used that trove to help him with his recovery. He also used his skills to make a hidden compartment in the floor to keep his backpack and the journals it contained within. They began to be comfortable.

That state of affairs couldn't last.


	4. Steve

Steve Rogers hadn't changed much since he'd been a kid. Sure, he was bigger now, and a lot healthier, but his fundamental personality hadn't changed. He still didn't like bullies, he thought any deviation from basic politeness should be addressed immediately, and he still thought jumping headfirst into any situation and going straight through was the best tactic for dealing with a fight. He tackled the search for Bucky Barnes the same way he'd dealt with waking up sixty-eight years in the future, with space whales, and with his own loneliness — headfirst, straight through, no detours.

This got him absolutely nowhere in his search for Bucky, but did turn over a lot of rocks that had HYDRA personnel hiding under them. The various alphabet agencies did a lot of arrests as the implosion of SHIELD led to the Avengers finding various pockets of people that were HYDRA. Tony and JARVIS mined the SHIELD download Natasha had put on the internet, finding various places HYDRA had hidden themselves. Sam quit his job at the VA and joined Steve in traveling around, following up on the leads Tony fed them. Natasha disappeared for a few months, then reappeared as if nothing had changed. Clint joined them as he could. As a SHIELD agent, he was more caught up in the fall of his agency and the resulting shakeup of the command structure. Steve understood, and was grateful when Clint could join them, but he had a mission for the first time in years, and it was one he was wholeheartedly in favor of, so that was his focus.

Bucky had completely disappeared after the helicarriers crashed into the Potomac River, and there were no clues as to his location for months. Finally, Tony got a hit in Switzerland, which sent Steve (and Sam) off like an arrow loosed from the bowstring. Tony loaned them a jet and a pilot, and they were in Bern, following Tony's lead.

Sam mostly stood back and watched. Steve was like a bloodhound on the scent, quivering any time he had to stay still, his muscles tight with restraint as he dredged up every iota of patience he had to get through questioning the people he needed the information from. They found that Bucky, or someone that matched Bucky's description, had spent a week at the hostel. He paid in cash, and kept to himself. The only thing he had was a backpack that went with him every time he left. One day, he'd left and hadn't come back. The desk clerk had received a call saying he wouldn't be back.

"Do you know where he called from?" Steve asked.

The clerk nodded, "Ja, it was from the train station. I could hear the boarding call."

"Danke," Steve said, and slid some money across the counter. It disappeared into the clerk's pocket, and he volunteered, "It was a call for a train to Milan."

Steve nodded and said, "Thank you, again."

He turned to Sam and said, "Milan?"

"He's either heading into Italy, or east into the old Eastern Bloc," Sam said.

"Not Italy," Steve told him, "after Azzano, Bucky didn't much like Italy. Can't see that changing."

"Well, call Stark and tell him what we know. It will be easier to have him track Barnes if he knows where to look," Sam told him.

Steve called Tony. Bucky had made it to Milan, then taken another train to Vienna. Steve grinned at Sam when he heard the news.

"Told you so," Steve whispered.

"Yeah, yeah, you know Barnes better than anyone. Got it," Sam joked back. Steve just grinned.

They lost the trail in Vienna and had to return to the States. Sam went back to Vienna a couple of weeks later, to follow up on another lead, but had to return without any further leads or information.

Then Ultron happened, and Steve was forcibly shoved off his single-minded focus on Bucky in an attempt to save the world from Tony's Iron Shield. Things were a little more distant between Steve and Tony after that. Tony still believed that some kind of AI was the answer to protecting the world, and while Steve was hesitant to trust anything Tony created after the fiasco of Ultron, Vision was...different, with more of JARVIS' personality. Vision was an ameliorating effect on Tony. Steve tried to let that be enough, but he found himself monitoring Tony more closely.

Thor was off-world, Bruce had vanished, and Clint had taken his opportunity to cut back on his duties as Hawkeye and instead spend time with his family. Tony was stepping back. Steve understood, but 2/3 of the original Avengers were now inactive or gone. He needed a new team, and he and Natasha built one. Vision was on it, as was Wanda, who appreciated the opportunity to join their team. They rounded out the roster with Sam and Tony's friend, James Rhodes. Steve found himself absorbed in training his new team of Avengers, and while he didn't forget about Bucky, he didn't make finding him as much of a priority as he had before. 

Then came the Sokovia Accords, and Bucky Barnes was suddenly at the forefront of Steve's thoughts again.


	5. Reunion

Steve was grim as he watched the footage of the explosion with Sharon and Sam. He couldn't believe that Bucky was responsible for this, but here in London, he couldn't do anything to change anyone's mind about the culprit.

Sharon took a phone call and told Steve and Sam she had to go to work. She offered them a ride, but Steve refused. He didn't want her to get into any more trouble. Instead, he called Natasha, who told them to meet a jet at a military airfield outside of London. 

Natasha was as good as her word and had a Quinjet waiting for them. As soon as Steve and Sam were aboard, the pilot received clearance and they took off, heading for the bombed headquarters of the UN in Vienna. Once there, Sam went to see what he could find among the emergency personnel on-site, while Steve called Natasha to find out what she knew. Sharon met Steve and Sam at a pub close to the bomb site and passed them a thin file detailing what the CIA task force knew. Steve flipped it open and found what he'd been searching for over the past two years — Bucky was in Bucharest. He and Sam raced back to the Quinjet.

They changed into their uniforms on the jet, and sketched out a quick plan. Steve would make contact with Bucky, while Sam would keep a lookout from the top of the apartment building next to Bucky's. The Quinjet slowed and the pilot dropped the ramp. Steve jumped out, Sam right behind him, and spread his arms and legs to slow his fall enough for Sam to catch up to him. Sam slid behind him and wrapped his arms around Steve's chest from behind. Sam's wings allowed him to slow their descent enough for Steve to hit the roof of Bucky's building in a roll, while Sam tilted away and made his own landing on a higher roof.

Steve jerked open the roof door and made his way down to Bucky's apartment. It didn't take him long to pick the lock and enter the apartment. A narrow hallway led to the open room where Bucky had a mattress, a table, and a small kitchen. A door in the kitchen area led to a small balcony, while a door in the hallway led to the bathroom. Steve noticed a journal on top of the small refrigerator, and reached for it, flipping it open. There were photographs of him, various entries in different handwritings. Steve glanced at them idly, but kept his attention on the room around him. Feeling the hair on the back of his neck stand up, he turned.

Bucky was looking at him, his eyes sad and resigned.

"Do you know me?" Steve asked him.

Bucky took a moment before replying, "You're Steve. I read about you in a museum."

Steve set the journal down and stepped toward Bucky. "I know you're nervous, and you have plenty of reason to be, but you're lying."

"I wasn't in Vienna. I don't do that anymore," Bucky husked out.

"Well, the people that think you did are coming here now, and they're not planning on taking you alive," Steve told him.

"That's smart," Bucky nodded, "good strategy."

"This doesn't have to end in a fight, Buck," Steve said.

"It always ends in a fight," Bucky answered, and turned his attention to the door. He dropped his eyes to his hand and began working off the glove that hid his metal arm.

"You pulled me from the river!" Steve snapped. "Why?"

Bucky looked at him and said, "I don't know."

"Yes, you do," Steve said quietly.

The windows shattered as grenades were thrown in, and the Soldier took over, using the strategy the Asset had put in place. The mattress to stop the bullets, the table flipped to block the hallway, even Steve became a weapon to stop the special forces arrayed against him. He made his way to the stairwell and battled his way through the men and weapons. Steve joined him and scolded him, but the Soldier simply sent him a glare and continued to make his way to the floor he needed.

The Soldier finally joined their notebooks on the adjacent rooftop and tried to make their escape. The Asset took over the body, focusing on snagging the backpack and heading toward the building's staircase. He was surprised when a shadow came from behind and knocked them over.

The fight was short and brutal, and the helicopter that began firing at the Black Panther allowed the Asset to escape down the side of the building and into the tunnel roads, where the Asset and the Soldier did their best to shake off pursuit. Steve kept getting in the way, and both personalities were leery of hurting him, because there was nothing else that would so quickly bring the Bucky person up and taking over their shared body. 

They were finally captured and locked into a mobile jail cell. The Soldier receded, letting the Asset catalogue the cell.

Arriving at the CIA's headquarters, the Asset could see that both Steve and Sam were in trouble, but he had enough to worry about. He couldn't see why they had been captured, so he waited, even though the Soldier had already risen up enough to point out that he had the ability to break them out of their cell, despite what the CIA thought.

Then the psychiatrist showed up, and pulled out the red book, and the Asset voiced the despair of all the personalities before he was subsumed by the Soldier, who could do nothing but obey the voice that recited the words.

When they next awoke, they were propped up in a chair, their metal hand immobilized by a drill press. Steve was there, and Bucky rose to the top, sharing memories they'd managed to recover in their time on the run.

The plan to get to the Siberian base ran into a few problems. The only two to make it away from the clash between Steve's people and Tony's people were themselves and Steve. They were surprised to be joined by Tony, and the confrontation between Zemo and the three of them was...well, it was bad. Bucky was shattered to find that the Soldier had killed Howard and Maria Stark, but the Asset pushed him back down and took over, working with Steve to get them out of there without getting killed by Iron Man.

Their escape was bedraggled, shoddy, and with more wounds than two supersoldiers should ever bear, but they, and Steve, made it back to the Quinjet, only to run into T'Challa, who offered them refuge in Wakanda. Steve accepted the offer, since they were not able to overcome the pain from their broken arm. The feedback loop through the nerves from the damaged arm was overwhelming all their personalities.

In Wakanda, the first thing that happened was their introduction to the king's personal medical team. As best as the Asset could figure, the Black Panther must also be enhanced, because they had pain medication that WORKED. Once the pain was stopped, the Asset catalogued their injuries, reporting them to the medical team.

Then came the most difficult part. There was a scientist in Wakanda that could help them heal their brain, but the scientist needed time to do brain scans and come up with a plan to heal the neural pathways. In the meantime, the Winter Soldier, the Asset, Bucky Barnes, and James were a danger to everyone around them, vulnerable to the code words being used again. It fell to the Asset to explain this to Steve. He let just enough of Bucky bleed through to make his point.

"You could just let them take the scans and then go to the remote village the king's guard was telling us about," Steve objected.

"I tried hiding, Steve. It didn't work," they told him.

Steve replied, "But this is Wakanda. They don't have CCTV, which is how you got caught this past week."

They shook their head, "I would be even more vulnerable now, without the arm to defend myself. Look," they raised their hand, cutting off Steve's objection, "I go under for a couple of months, they scan my brain and build a new arm. I come out, and they can help me heal. Steve, for me, that sounds like a win."

Steve looked away for a long time, and Bucky ached to touch him, remind him that their friendship could withstand this separation, but the Asset held him back. Finally, Steve looked at them and nodded.

"I understand, Buck."

Bucky gathered his courage and took over their body to say, "Besides, I need more help."

Steve immediately moved closer and said, "Buck, what's wrong? What can I do to help?"

"You can't. I know you would if you could, but I'm not," he tipped his head back and breathed deeply, "I'm not the same person I was before. I'm kind of messed up, in the head."

"Bucky, you know I don't care about that," Steve began.

"I know, Steve. I do know. But, I need to figure things out, and for the first time, I won't be alone and doing it myself. I'll have professionals that actually want to help me, not use me as a weapon."

"It's a gift," Steve said.

"Yes, it really is. Let me try?"

Steve's face took on the Captain's determined face, and he nodded, "Of course, Buck. You do what you need."

Bucky smiled at him, "Thanks, Steve. I knew I could count on you."

This did not stop Steve from double-checking once they were ready to go into cryo, but this time, Bucky could handle the interaction. As much as he missed Steve, as much as he wanted to spend time with him, this had to happen. They could not be vulnerable to the words any longer.


	6. Repair

When they were awoken from cryo, they met the scientist. To their surprise, their savior turned out to be the king's younger sister, Shuri. She had mapped their brain, invoking the words and following the neural pathways each word had blazed through their mind. All of this while they were in cryo, each word neutralized before they were brought out of cryo. It was a relief, honestly, to wake up and find that they were no longer a weapon. Steve and Natasha had delivered everything they could find on the Winter Soldier, every paper file possible, from every base they had ever been kept in, and Shuri had gone through everything, using any words or phrases. Even the kill switches had been neutralized.

"Your life is now your own, Sergeant Barnes," Shuri told him.

The Asset tilted his head back and looked at her. She returned his gaze.

"We're not...a single person," the Asset said quietly.

Shuri cocked her head, "Captain Rogers…?"

"No," the Asset told her, "not what I meant. I mean, we have, we are, multiple people in the same brain."

"Dissociative Identity Disorder? Tell me what you can," Shuri said.

"There are four of us. We are aware of each other, but we can't control the mind together, each personality must cede control to the next," the Asset explained.

Shuri nodded, "Do you have names for each other?"

"Yes. I am the Asset. There is also the Soldier. James is our newest personality, while the oldest is Bucky."

Shuri was using her bracelet to make notes, speaking while her fingers flew over a light projection of a computer interface, "Can you move easily between each other?"

"Yes," the Asset told her.

Shuri looked up briefly, "If I asked you to rotate between each other and speak with me briefly, would that be a problem?"

The Asset closed their eyes momentarily. When he opened them, he said, "No. We can do that for you."

Shuri nodded and began waving her arms around purposefully. A box of light splayed itself on the floor around their feet.

"All right, let's begin," Shuri said, "Please tell me which personality you are, and a brief synopsis of your function with this body."

The Asset nodded, "I am the Asset. I am the strategist of the group. I am also the most capable spy, and I am the one with the best facility for languages."

"How many languages do you speak?" Shuri asked, her eyes on the data. The light box was scanning the body, and a different map, one of the brain, was where Shuri was focused.

"I am fluent in 17 languages, and am able to function well enough in 23 others," the Asset told her.

"Impressive," Shuri murmured, "what else do you do?"

"I am the one that remembers most of the Hydra information, such as bank accounts, locations of bases, personnel, and how to infiltrate to achieve the objective."

Shuri nodded, "Good. Thank you. Can you ask the next personality to come up?"

The Asset bowed slightly and closed his eyes. When they opened again, the difference in body language and how they held themselves was obvious.

"Who are you"? Shuri asked.

"I'm James. I'm new. The others think I came about because of Steve Rogers and the whole Hydra mess. I'm learning, and like food."

"What's your favorite food, James?" Shuri asked.

"Wow, that's a tough question. I like a lot of fruits, some vegetables, but my favorite dish is stews, because it's all kinds of flavors mixed together and each one tastes different," James said, his eyes sparkling with enthusiasm.

"What kind of meat do you like in your stews?" Shuri wanted to know.

"Don't tell the others, because honestly, the Soldier doesn't care and the Asset will tell you he doesn't care when he really does, and Bucky doesn't like it for no reason I can figure out, but fish. I like fish stews best."

"Why doesn't Bucky like it?"

James frowned, "I think because he associates fish with being poor. He likes beef the best, because it's a treat to him. The Asset likes venison best, because he likes the strong taste. But I like fish, because you can add more spices if the flavor of the fish is strong, or you can be a lot easier if the flavor is mild. Plus, fish cooks faster, so I'm more sure of getting food before we have to run away again." He nodded, emphasizing his point.

Shuri nodded, too, and said, "We have excellent fish dishes here in Wakanda. I hope you will be able to try them. It was nice to meet you, James. Could you send up the next person, please?"

"Of course!" James told her, and closed his eyes.

The body language shifted again, and Shuri was almost positive that the next one was the Soldier. Sure enough, when he opened his eyes, they darted about the lab, identifying the exits and anything that could be a weapon. Then he turned his attention to her.

"I am the Soldier."

"I am Shuri. Please tell me your functions within this group," Shuri said, starting the brain scans for the third time. She looked up when the Soldier did not reply.

He was eyeing the lights scanning him with wariness. Shuri turned it off with a pinch of her fingers. The scans would continue to run, but without the lights that told the Soldier what was happening. She also turned her screens opaque.

"I am scanning your brain and mapping who is using which portions of the brain. This is a preliminary scan of the language centers and identity nodes. To fully map who controls what, I will have to ask you, each of you, to do physical activities associated with your specialties, but this is the first step of the process."

"My cohort has told me this. How do we know we can trust you?"

Shuri thought about the question, giving it the consideration it deserved. She answered his unspoken question, saying, "You don't, really, but my brother and I have put the resources of our country to work to help you, all of you. We have shared the secrets of our nation with you, simply by having you here. We are trusting you. Can you do the same?"

The Soldier pulled out the journal and wrote in it, then his body language shifted and another personality wrote in the journal before the Soldier came back. He read the journal and said, "The Asset believes the trust should be mutual. I can see his point."

"Excellent. Then, please, tell me your function."

The Soldier nodded and said, "I am the Soldier. I am the weapon.”

Shuri waited a beat and asked, "Anything else?"

The Soldier shrugged and replied, "No."

"Please?" Shuri said.

"I can kill you with your coffee mug and no left arm. Any further questions?"

"No, thank you, you given me enough," Shuri told him, "I appreciate it. Would you please send up the last personality?"

"If I can. He doesn't want to come out," the Soldier told her. He closed his eyes, and stood for over a minute before the eyes opened again. The person looking at her was the most distrustful of the lot.

"Hello, I am Shuri. I am mapping your personality with brain scans. With whom am I speaking?"

The voice that came out was raspy, as if the speaker were unused to their voice. "I'm Bucky Barnes. The others told me what you were doing."

"Hello, Bucky. What is your role?" Shuri asked.

"I'm the original person. I'm the one that went to war, and lived through Zola's torture, and I was a Howling Commando with my friend Steve. When I fell off the Nazi train, I...I couldn't take the pain, and Tiny helped me."

"Who is Tiny?" Shuri wanted to know.

"He calls himself the Asset now," Bucky told her, "and he helped me in Azzano. He's the one that got us through the fall and our capture by the Russians. They later transferred us over to the Germans, but the Russians kept physical custody of us until the breakup of the Soviet Union."

"That's good background information, thank you, but please, tell me more about you," Shuri said.

Bucky shrugged, "I can dance, but I don't know any of the modern stuff. I know how to talk to people better than the other three, although Tiny is really good at faking it. I'm the cook of the bunch. If we had to rely on everyone else, we'd starve. I'm the one that knows how to work the labor jobs we were using to generate money, because I worked on the docks during the thirties to help keep Steve alive. I'm the basis of the Soldier's skills, because I was the Howlies' sniper. I also helped with the strategies, because if we'd let Steve plan everything, it would have been frontal assaults all the time just because he could take the hits and keep going. The rest of us couldn't, so I helped come up with plans that used everyone’s strengths to get the best outcome."

"Thank you, Sergeant Barnes. I appreciate your cooperation," Shuri said.

Bucky shrugged again and stuffed his hand in his pocket, cocking a hip and grinning at her, "No big deal, miss."

Shuri looked at him reprovingly. "I am not one of your women to be charmed, Sergeant."

Bucky jerked upright, pulling his hand out of his pocket and nodding, "No, miss, you're not. My apologies. Do you need anything more, miss?"

"No, I do not," Shuri said. When she looked up again, the Asset was there.

"If you do not need us any longer, James would like to browse through your market," he told her.

"Yes, that's good, go," Shuri said, immersed in her scans.

The next day, Shuri set up the training room with ways to test each personality's physical abilities. For the Soldier, she set up a barre and music and had him dance ballet. For the Asset, she set up an obstacle course of people and told him to pick three pockets without being caught. For Bucky, she played dance music from the thirties and forties, and brought in a group of dancers for him to work with. Finally, for James, she took a tablet and went with him to the marketplace near her labs.

Finally, a few days later, she went to the village where Bucky had chosen to live and sat down with him.

"Tell me, Bucky, what is the ultimate goal here?" Shuri asked him.

"What do you mean?" Bucky asked, his eyes on the shifting light reflecting off the lake.

"Do you want me to integrate your personalities into one? None of you will be dominant, if I do. Or do you want to keep each personality, and if so, do you want me strengthen or weaken any of them?"

Bucky held up his hand. "Please, may we have a few moments to consult with each other?"

"Of course," Shuri replied.

Bucky rose and went to his hut, returning with a journal and a pencil. He laid the journal across his lap and wrote something, then visibly relaxed. In this manner, they cycled through, writing notes to each other. Shuri waited patiently. Finally, the pencil was laid down and the journal closed.

"I am the Asset," he began, "and after a lot of consultation, we have chosen to keep ourselves. We are actually quite good at working with each other, and we do not feel that you could create a single personality from us. We are too different for that to be easy, and our strengths have kept us alive. Bucky will become the primary personality, unless there is situation where the others are needed. We ask," here he stopped, and when he resumed, it was Bucky, "we would like, if possible, for James to have the ability to grow. He's young, and he might go away or he might continue to grow, and none of us feel that we can make that decision for him."

Shuri nodded, "I would guess that you also want time and space to train as the Soldier and the Asset?"

"Yes," Bucky said, "but I want to be able to be myself, too."

Shuri reached over and touched his hand, "Bucky. That has been the goal all along, to give you the time and the space to be yourself."

Bucky turned his hand over and pressed hers before detaching and tucking his hand under the journal.

"Yeah, but you weren't expecting me to be four selves."

Shuri laughed, "Ah, but that makes it a challenge, and I like challenges!"

Bucky smiled shyly, "Thank you, Princess."

Shuri stood and said, "Pft, if I call you Bucky, you call me Shuri. None of these titles! Let's get started, Bucky. I have to build an arm for you, help strengthen the Bucky paths in your brain, and get a new Black Panther outfit for my brother. I am busy!"

Bucky laughed, feeling the shackles of his past finally slip away. He was fractured, but his pieces fit with each other to make a whole person, someone who could function in society and not be a danger to himself or others.

He could hardly wait to tell Steve.

**Author's Note:**

> *runs up, skidders on sock feet into the door jamb and breathlessly blurts words*
> 
> This is my first foray into some VERY out on a limb artstuff for me in, oh I dunno, a really long time. As feared, lol, the process was rife with snags both creative and tech (had someone at the scanner place I go to nearly in tears after their flat was misbehaving and I said, 'yeah sure. send it through the roller. lessee what happens..." (well it gets STUCK is what happens there) but it all came out in the wash eventually...so...art imitating life?
> 
> It was more than a pleasure to work with mmouse15 - AMAZING writer exp for my first RBB rodeo as they are lovely, imaginative people who did wonderful things with words here! And ty to the caprbb folks who made it all a lot less scary :-)  
> -cf


End file.
